A Perspective on Chemistry Education

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based approach and the Laboratory Training Model of Teaching (LTM) chemistry. It strived to determine whether the ICT or the LTM would be more effective with respect to the male and female students’ overall as well as component-based achievement in chemistry and their retention of learning. The sample of the study consisted of 120 seventh standard students from two English-medium elementary schools in Mysore city, India. Four homogenous groups were formed randomly for the study and the effects of independent variables were tested under experimental conditions. The Test of Higher Mental Ability in Science (THMAS) was used to determine the homogeneity of the participants. After one month, the delayed posttest for achievement in chemistry was administered to determine the retention level of the students. The statistical techniques used to analyze the data were the independent sample t-test and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings indicated that as far as the overall achievement in chemistry, component-based achievement, and retention of knowledge, comprehension, application, and skills are concerned, the ICT-based method of teaching chemistry was more effective than the LTM of teaching. The effects of gender varied according to comparisons.

The study investigated the relationship between teachers’ content knowledge, qualifications, experience and students’ achievement in Chemistry in Otukpo Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. A sample of 25 Chemistry teachers and 187 Chemistry students out of a population of 98 Chemistry teachers and 2,897 SSII students respectively from Otukpo LGA of Benue State, Nigeria was used for the study. A validated 50 item Chemistry Teachers’ Content Knowledge Achievement Test (CTCKAT) and 25 item Chemistry Students’ Achievement Test (CSAT) was the instruments used to collect data. Reliability coefficient of 0.78 was established using Pearson Product Correlation. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design. Frequencies, and Percentages were used to answer the research questions and Pearson Correlation Moment Coefficient was used to test the hypotheses. The result indicated among others that there is a strong positive correlation between teachers’ content knowledge scores in Chemistry with students’ achievement scores in Chemistry (r= 0.89), the result also revealed that, there is a strong positive correlation between teachers’ qualifications and students’ achievement scores (r= 0.72), and also there is a positive correlation between teachers’ years of teaching experience and students’ achievement (r= 0.51). The study recommended among others that students’ achievement in Chemistry is likely to improve in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State, if teachers engaged to teach chemistry have good content knowledge of Chemistry and good teaching qualifications.

The study determined the effect of interaction pattern approach on secondary students’ achievement in Chemistry. The study was carried out in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design. Specifically, the pre-test, post-test non-equivalent control group design was used. A sample size of 112 (45 male & 67 female) out of the 1,522 senior secondary two (SS2) Chemistry students was selected using purposive and simple random sampling techniques. A 50 multiple-choice objective items Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) developed by the researchers was the instrument used for data collection. The reliability index of 0.92 was obtained for CAT using Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance (w). Data were analysed mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that interaction pattern approach (IPA) significantly improves students’ achievement in Chemistry than the conventional lecture approach (CLA). Gender has no significant influence on students’ achievement in chemistry when taught using IPA. Also, there is no significant interaction effect of instructional approaches and gender on students’ achievement in chemistry. Based on the findings, it was recommended that chemistry teachers should make use of IPA to improve students’ achievement in the subject and promote gender friendly chemistry teaching and learning.

This study investigated the effects of guided inquiry-based learning on student interest and achievement in chemistry in secondary schools in Enugu State, Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to sample of 240 SSII students from six public secondary schools, 40 students from one secondary school from each of the six education zones in Enugu State, were selected for the study. The students were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught using guided inquiry-based learning strategy, while the control group was taught using conventional lecture method. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design. Data was collected using Chemistry Interest Inventory (CII) and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT). The instruments were validated and reliability tested. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that students taught using guided inquiry-based learning strategy had significantly higher mean achievement scores than those taught using conventional lecture method. Similarly, the experimental group had higher interest scores than the control group. The study also revealed that there was no significant interaction effect between teaching methods and gender on students' achievement and interest in chemistry. The findings suggest that guided inquiry-based learning strategy is effective in enhancing students' interest and achievement in chemistry. Therefore, chemistry teachers should adopt guided inquiry-based learning strategy in teaching chemistry concepts to enhance students' interest and achievement. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for educational stakeholders as well as guided inquiry-based learning strategy is recommended for use in chemistry classrooms to improve student outcomes.

The Influence of Organizational Context on Best Practice Use by Care Aides in Residential Long-Term Care Settings

ObjectivesThis project aims to bring together information from research, practice and public views to make recommendations about safeguarding and use of equalities data from administrative sources in Scotland. The work was prompted by the need to consider safeguarding of the Equalities Protected Characteristics Dataset, but could apply more broadly. MethodInformation on the risks of misuse of equalities data and on good practice in appropriate use of equalities data is being gathered through desk-based research, attendance of events, and discussions with researchers and policy-makers. Options for sharing this information will be discussed with stakeholders involved with generating good practice guidance and with using the data. Methods for safeguarding data will be discussed with stakeholders involved with delivering access to data. Engagement with relevant communities will be conducted to seek views on collection and use of this data. Experts on use of specific protected characteristics data will be consulted throughout the project. ResultsResources on good practice in use of equalities data will be produced and communicated through Research Data Scotland (RDS) and partners’ channels. Recommendations will be made for how RDS’s approval panel should consider applications to use equalities data available within the RDS Researcher Access Service (RAS), particularly the Equalities Protected Characteristics Dataset, which includes over six million records collated from three datasets and covers all protected characteristics other than sexual orientation and gender reassignment. Consideration will be given to whether consistent safeguarding processes can be applied across other data providers in Scotland. ConclusionThis project will provide evidence and resources to enhance the safe and effective use of administrative data on equalities in Scotland. The impact will be to ultimately improve evidence generated from data, and therefore better inform decision-making about policy and practice relating to all protected characteristics.

The study investigated the Effect Constructivist Based Instructional Strategy on Senior Secondary Students’ Achievement in Chemistry. The high rate of failure in Senior Secondary School Chemistry necessitated the study. The study employed a quasi-experimental design specifically, the pretest posttest non-equivalent control group design. The study was carried out in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi State. The population of the study is three thousand, two hundred and forty two (3,242) Senior Secondary School two (SS 2) students who were selected from the seventy eight (78) coeducational secondary schools in Abakaliki Education Zone. The sample consisted of one hundred and seventy four (174) senior secondary school two (SS 2) science students who were sampled from four coeducational senior secondary schools randomly selected from the four Local Government Areas that make up Abakaliki Education Zone. Two of the schools were assigned to treatment group while two were assigned to control group. Intact classes were used throughout the study. The treatment group was taught using constructivist based instructional strategy while the control group was taught using conventional method. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. A Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) which is made up of thirty (30) items was used to collect data for the study. The data collected for the research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviations while the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that Constructivist Based Instructional Strategy is superior to Conventional Method in facilitating students’ achievement in Chemistry. It also revealed that gender does not have an effect on the achievement of students when taught with Constructivist Based Instructional Strategy. It was also found that there is no interaction between method and gender on students’ achievement in Chemistry. This implies that the use of conventional method in teaching might have been partly responsible for the students’ poor performance in Chemistry. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that Constructivist Based Instructional Strategy should be used by Chemistry teachers in teaching both male and female students because it facilitates teaching and learning and does not discriminate across gender. It was also recommended that government should organize seminars, workshop and conferences with the aim of training Chemistry teachers on the effective use of Constructivist Based Instructional Strategy in teaching.

The single most influential factor responsible for effective science teaching are teachers because they are in direct contact with students and are accountable for the effective delivery of educational contents to students on daily basis. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between chemistry teachers’ effectiveness and students’ academic achievement in chemistry. The correlational research design and quantitative survey method was used to address the research questions. Three thousand four hundred and sixty 10th graders from 41 public secondary schools (boys and girls) of District Lahore were selected as a sample size of the study using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The study adopted a valid and reliable research instruments to collect data about teacher effectiveness; School Teacher Effectiveness Questionnaire (STEQ) with overall reliability coefficients as ?=.88. The students’ achievement in Chemistry was obtained from the results of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Lahore (2024). The collected data were analyzed using descriptive (Mean and Standard Deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson r and Regression). The results revealed a strong positive correlation between teacher effectiveness and students’ academic achievement in Chemistry (r=.846). The findings also reported that 71.5% variance in chemistry achievement was observed by their perceived teacher effectiveness. It was concluded that various factors of teacher effectiveness – their subject expertise, instructions, assessment skills, communication skills, and classroom management skills – all play a significant role in fostering their students’ academic success in science education. It was recommended that school administrators should organize professional development programs and evaluation systems for their teachers to keep them engage with contemporary teaching competencies and to improve their existing professional skills.

Academic achievement of Nigerian secondary school students in Chemistry has not been satisfactory to many for nearly a decade now and this is becoming one of the most exigent puzzles facing teachers as well as students which require an urgent solution. Motivation has been recognized as one of the factors that have great impact on academic achievement. Therefore, this study examined the contribution of students' academic motivation in predicting students' academic achievement in Chemistry. The study was carried out in two schools of science (Ipade and Oladipo) in Oyo state. The descriptive survey design was employed for the study. A total number of 150 students which comprised 66 male students and 84 female students were randomly selected from the schools. Data were collected from the participants through the researchers designed questionnaire containing the Motivation Scale (AMS) which consists of 20 items and achievement test in chemistry. The achievement test comprised 20 questions in Chemistry. The data collected were analyzed by correlation and simple linear regression using R software version 3.6.2. The results of the analysis revealed a positive correlation between the motivation and the students' achievement in chemistry, and the students' academic achievement was observed to increase with increase in motivation. It was concluded that high motivation is likely to promote higher academic achievement of the students in Chemistry, while low motivation is also likely to diminish it. Therefore, motivation can be seen as an index for determining the levels of students' achievement in chemistry. This finding should serve as a weapon for every potential chemistry teacher, parents/guardians and students in combating poor academic achievement in Chemistry.

Inadequate pain management persists in nursing homes. Nursing assistants provide the most direct care in nursing homes, and significantly improving the quality of care requires their adoption of best care practices informed by the best available evidence. We assessed the association between nursing assistants' use of best practices and residents' pain levels. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of data collected between September 2019 and February 2020 from a stratified random sample of 87 urban nursing homes in western Canada. We linked administrative data (the Resident Assessment Instrument-Minimum Data Set [RAI-MDS], 2.0) for 10,093 residents and survey data for 3547 nursing assistants (response rate: 74.2%) at the care unit level. Outcome of interest was residents' pain level, measured by the pain scale derived from RAI-MDS, 2.0. The exposure variable was nursing assistants' use of best practices, measured with validated self-report scales and aggregated to the unit level. Two-level random-intercept multinomial logistic regression accounted for the clustering effect of residents within care units. Covariates included resident demographics and clinical characteristics and characteristics of nursing assistants, unit, and nursing home. Of the residents, 3305 (30.3%) were identified as having pain. On resident care units with higher levels of best practice use among nursing assistants, residents had 32% higher odds of having mild pain (odds ratio, 1.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.71; p = 0.040), compared with residents on care units with lower levels of best practice use among nursing assistants. The care units did not differ in reported moderate or severe pain among residents. We observed that higher unit-level best practice use among nursing assistants was associated with mild resident pain. This association warrants further research to identify key individual and organizational factors that promote effective pain assessment and management.

The dynamic role of Chemistry as a discipline in the technological development of any nation demands that more thoughtful attention be given to its method of teaching and learning. This has necessitated the innovation of different teaching approaches and strategies by Chemistry educators to enhance students’ achievement and sustainability of Chemistry Education. This study investigated the efficacy of the use of Periodic Board-Scrabble Game (PBSG) teaching approach developed by the researchers on students’ achievement in Chemistry. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The design of the study was quasi-experimental research design, precisely the non-equivalent pre-test and post-test control group design. The population of this study was one thousand and eighty-nine (1,089) Senior Secondary School students of the penultimate class from thirty-two Senior secondary schools in Nsukka Senatorial District of Enugu State. One hundred and forty-two students from two co-educational schools in this population were sampled purposively. Two intact classes were randomly drawn from each of the two schools. The instrument used was the Periodic Board-Scrabble Game and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT), developed by the researchers. The reliability of the Chemistry achievement test was established using Kuder-Richardson formula 20 (K-R 20), and the index obtained was 0.94. Mean and standard deviation (SD) were used to answer the research questions while the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at p<0 .05. The study revealed that the use of Periodic Board-Scrabble Game (PBSG) approach enhanced students’ achievement in Chemistry. It was recommended that chemistry teachers should adopt the use of Periodic Board-Scrabble Game(PBS) approach in teaching the concept of the periodic table. It is also recommended that this game should be translated into a video game.

A new perspective is required in approaching the chemistry teaching and learning instead of rote memorization that has been followed for ages. Employing blended learning strategy can enhance the teaching and learning of Chemistry. Blended learning strategy is an instructional methodology involving the integration of synchronous and asynchronous learning tools for teaching learning process. The present study was aimed at finding the influence of blended learning strategy on secondary level students' achievement in chemistry by comparing it with existing method. The blended learning model employed was a blend of technology enabled synchronous meetings and asynchronous activities. The study employed experimental method with pretest-posttest nonequivalent-groups design. The sample was selected from one of the semi urban CBSE schools in Kerala. A blended learning package comprising of both face-to face teaching and online media was developed for teaching the chapters 'Atoms and Molecules' and 'Structure of the Atom' from NCERT standard IX science textbook. The statistical techniques used for analysis of data are t-test and ANCOVA. It was found that the Blended learning strategy was effective in influencing the achievement in chemistry among secondary school students. The finding of the study has several educational implications for the policy makers, curriculum planners and teachers. If policy makers can integrate blended learning in the subject of chemistry teaching learning it can improve the achievement in chemistry among secondary school students.

The study aimed at assessing how 13 environmental variables taken together predict students’ achievement in Chemistry as well as their relative contribution to the prediction. Two research questions were raised and stratified random sampling technique was used to select 94 Chemistry teachers and 600 of their Chemistry students for the study. Environmental variable Questionnaire 1 and 11 and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) were used for data collection and analysed using multiple regression.The results showed that the 13 variables taken together had significant contribution to students’ achievement in Chemistry and accounted for 77.34% of the variation in students’ achievement in Chemistry. It was recommended that stakeholders in provision of Chemistry education at the secondary school level should consider the eight variables that contributed significantly to achievement seriously during planning and executing Chemistry education programmes for optimum achievement of students. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v4n3p275

The study aimed at assessing how 13 learning environment variables taken together predict students' achievement in chemistry as well as their relative contribution to the prediction. Two research questions were raised and stratified random sampling technique was used to select 94 chemistry teachers and 600 of their chemistry students for the study. Learning Environment Questionnaire I and II (LEQ) and Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) were used for data collection and analysed using multiple regression. The results showed that the 13 variables taken together had significant contribution to students' achievement in chemistry and accounted for 77.34% of the variation in students' achievement in chemistry. It was recommended that stakeholders in provision of chemistry education at the secondary school level must consider the eight variables that contributed significantly to achievement seriously during planning and executing chemistry education programmes for optimum achievement of students in chemistry.